Chess Statistics: Top 10 Best Openings for White and Black

There are many games of chess being played each minute and even each second. There are players who play online blitz chess for fun and there are those who play standard 2 hour time control chess to make a living (they are called Grandmasters).

You know there are chess databases that store many of the games that were played, and therefore there is a pretty good statistics on those games, such as how many moves each game lasts, openings played, amount of draws, wins and losses…

Today we will take a look into chess statistics and see what openings can lead to the best results for white and which ones are more favorable for black.

We will also see the list of top openings that lead to draws and which ones lead to least amount draws.

The tabled below were composed at ntlworld.com and much more useful chess statistics information can be found on that website

While few GMs have played the Blackmar-Deimer as White, Joel Benjamin and Juan Bellon have lost while playing against it. Former USSR Champion M. Gurevitch once declined the BDG saying that taking the pawn on f3 looked “complicated”! Further, NM Charles Deibert resigned a WON endgame against IM I. Ivanov, not realizing that after Ivanov’s Pawn promoted to a Queen, Deibert had a K+P+ minor piece forced mate.

[quote name=”Rob Watson”]Interesting to see the Benko draws 35% when played by White, but only 28% when played by Black. I’d like to see the 7% of games where White plays the Benko but Black somehow doesn’t. Also, White scores 55.5% with the Benko and Black scores 46%, totalling 101.5%; how?[/quote]

The percents are different because the opening is probably counted from the 3rd move for Black, but the 4th move for White. It may include decline lines for White that it doesn’t include for Black.

Interesting to see the Benko draws 35% when played by White, but only 28% when played by Black. I’d like to see the 7% of games where White plays the Benko but Black somehow doesn’t. Also, White scores 55.5% with the Benko and Black scores 46%, totalling 101.5%; how?